BS: Dublin Gridlock??

Subject: RE: BS: Dublin Gridlock??
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Sep 02 - 01:02 PM

Airto, The Armagh fans were high in their praise of the Dub supporters, they took their defeat well, nigh on 80,000 and not a cross word between opposing fans, Soccer thugs look and learn. The Dubs will be back. Ard Mhacha.

Subject: RE: BS: Dublin Gridlock??
From: Airto
Date: 03 Sep 02 - 06:01 AM

Nice one, Stewart.

While Dublin traffic is bad, Seattle traffic is pretty awful too. Last summer we left there on a Friday afternoon to go to Portland. What a mistake. We got about 30 miles in the three hours we thought it would take to cover the whole distance.

Subject: Lyr Add: DIRECTIONS (Colum Sands)
From: Stewart
Date: 02 Sep 02 - 05:58 PM

Here in Seattle that bit of news on NPR gave us some relief that there was a place with worse traffic than here! In Dublin last year I had no trouble since I was on foot. But in Co. Donegal a few months ago driving a rental car, my wife and I had lot's of fun figuring out where we were and how to get to where we wanted to be. Our map had road numbers, but the road signs didn't and often it was a puzzle figuring out just which way they were pointing.

Anyway, this song I heard Colum Sands sing in Derry last year tells all about getting directions in Ireland.

DIRECTIONS - by Colum Sands

If you're not sure where you're going, but you know you've lost your way:

I hope you'll stop and listen now to what I'm going to say,
For I lost my way to Ballymastray on a day I'll not forget.
And I had to ask directions from everyone I met.
Well my trouble really started at the crossroads I suppose,
When I asked a man coming out of a shop with smoke coming out of his nose.
He leaned in through my window, like a man with time to spare,
And through the smoke I heard him say, "Now you're a stranger here.

But do you see that road in front of you that's forking to the right,
Whatever you do, don't take that road or you'll drive about all night,
No just keep on going, til you see a pub called Pat's,
Drive straight on round the corner and ask anyone after that."
Well around the bend I drove myself and I didn't see a soul,
Til I met a man with a bicycle he was wheeling a bag of coal,
His face was slightly swollen and his back wheel slightly flat,
But I knew I'd have to ask him, I was lost and that was that.

"Could you tell me the way to Ballymastray?" - "Could you give us the price of a beer?"
I handed him over a couple of bob for I thought that the deal was fair,
Til his pickled words of wisdom were whispered in my ear,
"If I was going to Ballymastray, I wouldn't start from here."
A woman tied to a little dog next heard my appeal
As she leaned through my window, her dog leaned on my wheel,
"O Ballymastray's a lovely place, sure it's even in a song,
But do you know what I'm going to tell you though, you couldn't be further wrong!

You see, you came across the river, and you really had no call,
In fact you shouldn't have crossed that bridge at all at all at all.."
Her dog had reached my fourth wheel as I put the car in gear,
Says I, "I'm getting out of here before he finds the spare."
It was just outside a joke shop, I met a man with a gun,
Black polish painted on his face and he wore a uniform,
I asked for the way to Ballymastray, says he, "I'm not from here"
He asked me where I was coming from, says I "I've no idea!"

Ah, never ask a couple, unless you want a fight,
One will send you to the left and the other to the right,
I left a pair of loggerheads and then my blood ran cold,
For wheeling round the corner came the man with the bag of coal,
"Ah now you're really lost my boy, and there's just yourself to blame,
For you drove away the minute I was trying to explain.
But I'll tell you now for nothing, if you take me and my load,
I'll show you the way to Ballymastray and it won't be off your road."

It was half an hour later, we reached his granny's lane,
And there we left his bag of coal and headed on again,
He left me with directions an hour after that,
At a petrol pump with a pub attached and the name of the pub was Pat's.
When I reached my destination, I was a broken man,
But the lesson that I learned that day, I'll share it if I can,
If you're going to Ballyshannon, Ballymastray or Ballylap,
If you're going to Bally anywhere, would you buy a bally map.

Cheers, S. in Seattle

Subject: RE: BS: Dublin Gridlock??
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 02 Sep 02 - 03:45 PM

My God, Bev and Jerry, there wouldn't be much of a touirist industry if we all skipped the cities where a cop's ben shot.

As for you, Pooka, demanding the SP on Dublin from "UK catters"! Well no wonder you had to ask twice....

Subject: RE: BS: Dublin Gridlock??
From: Bev and Jerry
Date: 02 Sep 02 - 02:57 PM

And by the way, the N1/M1 is called the Belfast Road if your in Dublin and the Dublin Road if your in Belfast. If we had asked for the Roscrea road instead of the N62 we would have been directed straight to our B&B.

Bev and Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Dublin Gridlock??
From: Bev and Jerry
Date: 02 Sep 02 - 02:54 PM

Pook:

We headed for Belfast but turned off the M1/N1 just before reaching it and went to the Ards peninsula for a couple of days. We had planned to day trip to Belfast but the first night a policeman was shot there and we lost our nerve because our rental car had republic plates on it.

Airto and Declan:

We had the same experience. When we were in Ireland in 1990, route numbers appeared only on maps. They seldom appeared on signs and no one was familiar with them. This year, the numbers appeared on a lot of signs but still no one knew or cared what the route numbers were.

We had that exact same conversation. Us: "How do we get to the N62?" Her: "Where are you trying to get to?" Us: Templemore." Her: "Go down this road to the first crossroad and turn left, then turn right at the next road." This got us to Templemore but not to the N62 where our B&B was. On the other hand, the N62 does run through Templemore so we were able to pick it up there and get home. It was about six miles that way instead of 1.5 by the shortest route but, as the Irish say, it was just as well - we saw some scenery we would have missed going straight back.

Bev and Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Dublin Gridlock??
From: Airto
Date: 02 Sep 02 - 01:19 PM

Congrats, Ard Mhacha - but only on condition you dish out the same to Kerry in the final.

Subject: RE: BS: Dublin Gridlock??
From: GUEST,ard mhacha
Date: 02 Sep 02 - 01:07 PM

Armagh 1.14 Dublin 1.13, the poor Dubs were well Grid-locked. Ard Mhacha Abu.

Subject: RE: BS: Dublin Gridlock??
From: The Pooka
Date: 02 Sep 02 - 12:03 PM

Thanks Declan! Now we have the real story, and ohhh what a fine one it is! The Minister for Transport! Wouldn't ye know? *LOL*!!! // & Spot on, Airto: ya got us sillyarsed tourists exactly right!

Subject: RE: BS: Dublin Gridlock??
From: Airto
Date: 02 Sep 02 - 06:03 AM

It's true what you say, Declan. When visiting drivers roll down their windows and ask for directions to the N11, or whatever, it means nothing to a local. The first thing I have to ask is where they're going. They're thinking to themselves "to the N11, you fool" but are too polite to say so. Having finally got their directions to "the Wexford road", they drive off saying to themselves "how wonderfully quaint".

Subject: RE: BS: Dublin Gridlock??
From: Declan
Date: 02 Sep 02 - 05:36 AM

Glad to hear some people don't think traffic is too bad in Dublin. You should talk to local motorists and you'll hear a different story. I don't drive and I can get away with it because I live in an area that is well served by public transport, including the DART railway system, but getting around the city by car is becoming a bit of a nightmare. Part of the problem is just the sheer number of motorists on the road. In 2000 there were over 100,000 new vehicles registered in a city of about 1.5 Million people, and almost the same number again last year.

There are a number of infrastructural projects going on at the moment to help the situation - LUAS a light rail system which will see trams returning to Dublin streets for the first time in 50 years and a Port Tunnel to take the heavy traffic from the docks out onto a ring road beyond the city - at the moment most of the day there are HGVs and juggernauts driving within 10 yards of O Connell Street, the main city centre thoroughfare. These schemes will hopefully improve things eventually, but for the moment they're making the situation worse because of the level of raodworks, but you can't make an omlette without breaking eggs.

The story about the signs was that Dublin Corporation introduced some new measures to 'encourage' cars with no business in the city centre to use 'orbital' routes to get from one part of the city to the other. This was accompanied by some enforced changes in traffic flow and restrictions on turning into certain streets, including O Connell St(which is a bit of a mess because they're building a big spike in the middle of it (a delayed millennium project) and the Floozie's Jacousi is being moved to a new site). The new signs were put there to guide motorists onto the orbital routes but were only put up on the morning that the restrictions came in. They featured road numbers and junction numbers, all nicely colour coded, which would be fine if you had a map with these marked on it, but there was no campaign to inform people about this, no circulation of maps etc.

To be additionally helpful the only actual words appearing on these signs were 'An Lar' which is the gaelic for the centre - particularly helpful for the tourists. As well as this, most of the signs didn't get erected in time, so if you did manage to follow them to a certain point, they ran out and you were on your own. The Minister for Transport came home from his holidays, got lost and promptly ordered the local authority to take them down again. There's a big row going on about this at the moment. It will be fun to see how it turns out.

In the meantime people will have to go back to the traditional way of giving directions - turn left at The Brazen Head and take the second right after Slattery's. Very few people in Dublin know the route numbers of the roads, but when it comes to Pub names people will find their way around no bother.

Subject: RE: BS: Dublin Gridlock??
From: The Pooka
Date: 01 Sep 02 - 11:36 AM

Well m'self, I was last in Dublin in summer 1998, don't recall traffic being TOO bad. Righthand-side-of-road-accustomed Yank driver always had big trouble at the Roundabouts, but that's me, not Ireland. 'Course I did have a wee accident with the rental car driving the Ring of Kerry. Decided to hang a U-turn; front end was brutally assaulted by a terrorist cliff-face. Yer man at the rental company was very kind about it. "Ah well no one was injured sure that's the important thing, it's only money, 200 pounds please." So, I contributed to the Celtic Tiger. I was very proud. (btw a barman told me that when the Euro came in it would be Fierce. Is it? :)

Subject: RE: BS: Dublin Gridlock??
From: Ferret
Date: 01 Sep 02 - 09:27 AM

Dublin traffic is fine no were near as bad as London or Frankfurt, but Dublin divers !!!! if you have a blank sheet of A.4. then you are a proud owner of the Dublin highway code. But still a wonderful and beautiful city. All the best ferret

Subject: RE: BS: Dublin Gridlock??
From: The Pooka
Date: 31 Aug 02 - 10:14 PM

Thanks folks. / Giok, yeah, that's exactly what my Informer gathered. Only he also thought the signs were *exclusively* in Irish, which I doubt; I presumed they'd be bilingual. And he thought they'd been removed now. / But Bev & Jerry, that doesn't sound so bad at all, at all. So, how was Belfast btw? Did yez go to the Interface Areas?? Oy.

Subject: RE: BS: Dublin Gridlock??
From: Bev and Jerry
Date: 31 Aug 02 - 09:59 PM

We were in Dublin in May. Took a taxi from the airport to our B&B near Parnell Square and were glad we weren't driving. While in Dublin we mostly walked or took a bus or a taxi so traffic was not a problem for us although it didn't look too bad.

We picked up a rental car on a Monday expecting it to be at the airport (about 7 miles from the city center) but it was actually on Upper O'Connel Street. We were expecting the worst since this was our first time driving on the left side of the road in 12 years and we planned to be lost a lot. But, it turned out to be a bank holiday so we were virtually alone on the streets of Dublin. We followed the relatively new signs to get to Belfast and had no trouble at all.

This was the last day in Ireland that we didn't get lost at least once!

Bev and Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Dublin Gridlock??
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 31 Aug 02 - 08:14 PM

Well I hear tell that they've set up a system of signage showing different through routes. Only trouble is they got too much info on them for a driver to take in, in the time he has available as he passes. Apparently it hasn't helped at all at all.
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: Dublin Gridlock??
From: MudGuard
Date: 31 Aug 02 - 03:50 PM

Last time I was in Dublin (end of May and end of June 2002) I had no problem with traffic congestion there.

Might be because I rode a bicycle... ;-)

MudGuard

Subject: RE: BS: Dublin Gridlock??
From: The Pooka
Date: 31 Aug 02 - 03:33 PM

No takers, eh? Hmmph. Probably all stuck in traffic in Ballsbridge.

Subject: Dublin Gridlock??
From: The Pooka
Date: 31 Aug 02 - 10:41 AM

No, this is not about the Dail. But speaking of Dubliners Thrashing: a friend told me he heard a radio bit (NPR, U.S.) about Dublin having been declared (dunno by whom) the world's second-most-traffic-congested city (after Tokyo, I think)---AND about a recent attempt to remedy the situation by putting up new signs, which made matters so much worse that they were promptly taken down again. Being too lazy & cheap to look up and pay The Irish Times, and trusting the Mudcat much more anyway, I ask: Come all ye U.K. 'catters, and sing us the sad tale. (Lame effort to impersonate a Music Thread...) Wot's the dail nowait I mean, deal, here?